Family of Kings scout settles 9-11 complaint

Even after settling what had been the last wrongful death lawsuit against the airlines over the Sept. 11 attacks, the family of Mark Bavis warned on Wednesday that neither those companies, nor government regulators have done enough to prevent another, similar catastrophe.

"Such a tragedy ... should never again be the result of lack of oversight or preparation or because lobbyists have so much influence and power in Washington, D.C., that American lives are at risk," the Bavis family said in a public letter released two days after the settlement was announced.

"Our government's job is to protect the people - from foreign armies, terrorists and even our own American corporations. It is time that our elected officials take responsibility for the authority we have given them."

Mark Bavis was a scout for the NHL's Los Angeles Kings who was on his way to training camp on United Flight 175 out of Boston when it was flown into the south tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 - one of four planes hijacked in the deadliest terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil.

The Bavises were among 95 families that chose not to file a claim with the government-backed $7 billion Victims Compensation Fund that was established to protect the airlines from an expected deluge of lawsuits and provide a quick resolution for the surviving heirs. The other families had all settled by the 10th anniversary of the attacks, but the Bavises said they would not because they were determined to expose the failures of the airline industry that allowed the armed hijackers onto the planes. In the letter released on Wednesday, though, the family said it reversed course because said U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein "essentially gutted the case so that the truth about what led to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, would never be told at trial."

"With the stroke of his pen, Judge Hellerstein very cleverly changed this lawsuit," the letter said. "The lawsuit was about wrongful death, gross negligence and a complete lack of appreciation for the value of human life. He instead made it a case about a federal regulation."